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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



«« 



LIFE AND SERVICES 



YRON B. WRIGHT 

(Late a Representative kuo.m Pennsylvania) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATE,. 



Fifty-third Congress, Third Session. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT P R I N T I N (J OFFICE. 
1895- 






£''</." 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the Hou.se j 5 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. C.-^USEV . 12 

Mr. SCRANTON 8 

Mr. Covert 23 

Mr. Grow ^__ 34 

Mr. Hicks 26 

Mr. Smith of Arizona 18 

Mr. Charles W. Stone 14 

Mr. William A. Stone i 32 

Mr. Wanger 21 

Proceedings in the Senate 39 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. Cameron 42 

Mr. Daniel 48 

Mr. Peffer 52 

3 



Death of Representative Wright. 



Proceedings in the House, 

December 3, 1894. 

Tvlr. ScRANTON. JMr. Speaker, it is with sorrow that I an- 
nounce to the House of Representatives the death of our 
late colleague, Myrox B. Wright, recently representing 
the Fifteenth district of the State of Pennsylvania, which 
occurred at Trenton, Ontario, on the 13th of November last. 

Mr. Wright's death is the fourth among the Represent- 
atives from Pennsylvania elected to the present Congress. 

It is not my purpose now to make any remarks commem- 
orative of the character of the deceased. Upon some future 
occasion that will be our sad duty. 

]\Ir. Speaker, as a mark of respect to the memory of a 
Representative present at our last adjournment, but now 
absent for evermore, I offer the following resolutions and 
ask their adoption by the House. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Pennsylvania sub- 
mits the resolutions which the Clerk will report. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the announcement of 
the death of Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the State of Penn- 
sylvania. 

5 



6 Proceedings in the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolution to the Senate. 
Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 

And in accordance with the terms thereof the House 
adjourned. 

December 12, 1894. 

Mr. SCRAXTOX. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
for the immediate consideration of a resohition fixing a 
date for the delivery of eulogies upon my late colleague, 
the Hon. Myrox B. Wright, late a Representative from 
the Fifteenth district of Pennsylvania. 

The resolution was read, as follows: 

Resolved, That the .second Saturday in February, 1895, beginning at 2 o'clock 
in the afternoon, be set apart for eulogies on the life and services of Hon. Myron 
P.. Wright, late a Representative from the Fifteenth district of Pennsylvania. 

The resolution was adopted. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

February 9, 1S95. 
The Speaker. The Clerk will report the special order. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the second Saturday in February, 1895, beginning at 2 o'clock 
in the afternoon, be set apart for eulogies on the life and services of Hon. Myron 
B. Wright, late a Representative from the Fifteenth district of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. SCRAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask for the present con- 
sideration of the resolutions I send to the Clerk's desk. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death of the 
Hon. Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the State of Pennsylvania. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the busi- 
ness of the House be now suspended, that his associates may be able to pay proper 
tribute to his high character and distinguished Sii-vices. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect the House shall at the close of 
these ceremonies stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



Address of Mr. Scrantoii of Peniisyli>ania. 



Address of Mr. Scranton. 

Mr. Speaker: In the busy hours of a closing Congress 
again we pause to turn the leaves of memory and pa}' fra- 
ternal tribute to one who was present in his seat at the 
adjournment of our last session, but who before we recon- 
vened had left us for evermore. He was in the prime of 
manhood, with ever\' expectation of life, was filling a use- 
ful and honorable career, and his future was bright and 
promising. The sudden death of such a one is a rude shock 
to strong men and appalling to surviving friends, even 
though death itself can have no terrors if it is but an 
awakening of the mortal into immortality. 

The Fifteenth district of Pennsylvania — Bradford, Wyo- 
ming, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties — was unprepared 
for the death of its Congressman, on the 13th of November 
last, and greatly mourns his loss. Although ailing with 
throat trouble for a year past, so serious a termination of 
his illness was not expected. While seeking restoration 
of health in Canada, he was elected for the fourth time 
last November by a largely increased majority, despite his 
absence from the district during the campaign. 

Myron B. Wright was notably successful in all his un- 
dertakings. Nominally the cashier of the First National 
Bank of Susquehanna, to which position he successively 
rose from a clerkship, he was, in fact, the bank itself. He 
was largely interested in the manufacture of wood alcohol 
and acids, from which enterprise he amassed a large fortune. 
His political career was marked 1)\- the same successful char- 
acteristics as his business life. When first nominated for 



Life and Services of Myyon B. Wright. 9 

Congress, in 1S88, he had never held office, except as school 
director, and was not even well known thronghout his 
own connty, althongh born, reared, and always a resident 
of it, while to the other three connties he was almost a 
stranger. But the Fifteenth district, after knowing him, 
learned to appreciate his qualities of leadership, realized 
his usefulness, and honored him with a seat in this House. 
At the outset of his Congressional aspirations it was sup- 
posed he merely coveted the distinction of a single term, 
or the regulation two terms at most. But under his influ- 
ence and direction the hitherto discordant elements in the 
district became harmonious, and he was honored as was no 
Congressman from the Wilmot district since the days of 
Grow, before the war. 

In his first (the Fifty-first) Congress he immediately took 
rank as a valued adviser in tariff legislation, and in conse- 
quence there arose between Mr. Wright and Mr. McKin- 
ley an intimacy which ripened into the closest friendship. 
It is characteristic of his generous nature that afterward, 
when Governor McKinley suffered financial ruin through 
others, Myron B. Wright was one of a few moneyed 
friends who came to the great protectionist's relief by pay- 
ing all his obligations, thus saving Mrs. McKinley' s private 
estate and the Governor's personal credit. 

Mr. Wright was a close friend of Senator Quay, whose 
attention he first attracted b\' the thorough work he did for 
Blaine in 1884 throughout the southern tier of New York 
and his liberal personal expenditures for the purpose. No 
one in the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation was per- 
sonally more popular than he was, while his friendships 
were equally strong with colleagues in other sections. 



ro Address of Mr. Scraiiton of Pennsylvama. 

Mr. Wright was in the zenith of manhood, forty-seven 
years of age, and while he has left a record and pleasant 
memories unattainable by many men of equal advantag-es 
whose years might double his, the thought is uppermost at 
this time, what a loss is a man of such promise ! To him 
the accumulation of money was valued only as a means of 
doing good; he was generosity and honor personified, and 
many a recipient of his open-heartedness will cherish his 
memory in sorrow. Although without the advantages of a 
liberal education and with no pretense to public speaking, 
during his career in Congress as a thinker, a student, and 
a writer he developed an aptitude for his surroundings, 
and produced several excellent speeches and open letters 
expressing opinions upon public affairs which attracted 
much favorable attention and commendation, notably his 
reply to the sugar planters' appeal from Louisiana. 

Mr. Wright owned his residence in Washington, and 
spent much of his time here during recesses of Congress, 
attending to the interests of his constituents. His pred- 
ecessors, Jadwin and Bunnell, were devoted to their con- 
stituents, especially in pension matters, but ]\Ir. Wright 
eclipsed even their record in this respect — not an easy task. 

His summers of late years were largely spent on the St. 
Lawrence, among the beautiful Thousand Islands, where 
he entertained in a princely manner in his own cottage, his 
private steam launch, and in other ways. He had scarcely 
been a resident of his district for six years, and \et with 
each year he had grown steadily in the esteem and affection 
of his constituents. The Fifteenth district will miss him, 
his colleagues in Congress will miss him, and his large 
circle of valued ac(]uaintances and many friends every- 
where will miss him and mourn his untinieh- demise. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. ii 

Who is this grim visitant that comes to our dwelling 
place? His mien is sinister, his countenance forbidding, 
his eyes are sad and somber. At his approach flowers lose 
their fragrance, the air its freshness, the very skies their 
brilliancy. He comes, and our happy laughter is changed 
into inconsolable tears; he comes, and our jovous apparel 
is cast aside; we clothe us in the garb of grief He wears 
the mantle of destruction; his glance is that of the con- 
queror; his lips are silent. And yet to some he appears 
with the gladsome look of an expectant lover; to some he 
appears as the harbinger of rest, as the Angel of Charity; 
he brings a gift — the peace of God which passeth all under- 
standing. It is Death. It is Death, uncontrollable, insatia- 
ble, and inexorable, who has taken from among us a mark 
that has shone earnest and steadfast as a beacon light of 
example to those who love the precepts of manliness and 
virtue, and as a pillar of ominous cloud to those who love 
them not. 

It is sad for us to know that never again shall we behold 
that genial face, that look of friendly welcome; that never 
again shall we feel the warm clasp of his hand, whose firm 
and kindly pressure betokened the singleness and sincerity 
of his character. PvvlA it is sad for him to pass from a world 
where its noblest and its fairest delighted to honor him — 
from a world that gazed from the laurels that marked his 
brow but yesterday to those even fairer ones which surely 
awaited his future. Yet can we grieve that he roams — as 
must so good a man — the halls of everlasting light; that he 
gazes with the eyes of divine content not upon the dingy 
beauties of human life, but upon those mansions whose 
walls inclose unutterable happiness and eternal rest? Ours 
is the loss. Peace, brother; farewell! 



12 Address of Mr. Causey of Delaware. 



Address of Mr, Causey. 

Mr. Speaker: After a brief illness Myron B. Wright, 
a Representative from the Fifteenth Congressional district 
of the State of Pennsylvania, died at Trenton, in Canada, 
whither he had gone in search of health, on November 13, 
1894. In the prime of life, just when his sterling quali- 
ties were making him conspicuous among his fellow-men, 
"God's finger touched him, and he slept." 

I feel, Mr. Speaker, that in my humble way I must weave 
some little garland to the memory of my departed friend, 
even though it be intertwined with those heart throbs and 
sighs which find their readiest expression chiefly in tears. 

My first acquaintance with Mr. Wright began when I 
entered Congress, and during my first term there sprang up 
a warm and sincere friendship between us that continued 
until he was called to another world. It is almost impos- 
sible to describe how friendships in Congress are formed. 
They are like those of school and college life, it seems to 
me. That between our deceased brother and myself grew 
almost imperceptibh-. He was a warm-hearted, sincere, 
genuine man. He received no especial educational advan- 
tages in early life, but by sheer industr>-, honesty, and per- 
severance rose step by step from a humble position to one of 
affluence and prominence. He had a just pride in his 
early achievements, but was as modest as a woman, and 
only after long intimacy could he be induced to spgak of 
his success in life. 

One of his well-marked characteristics was his generos- 
ity and kindness. He delighted in making all around him 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 13 

happy, and never seemed to enjoy himself more than when 
he was entertaining his friends. His acts of charity were 
many and always done so unostentatiously that he really 
made the recipients feel that they were doing him a kind- 
ness in accepting them. 

At his funeral I saw the carpenter and the blacksmith, 
as well as the banker and the merchant, as they looked on 
the bier, shed bitter tears for him who had been the s^reat 
strength of his town. More than once the expression was 
heard, while the whole town was in mourning, "Myron 
B. Wright was the friend of all tha^ was o-ood. " 

In the death of Mr. Wright his family lost a devoted 
husband and loving father, whose presence made home 
supremely happy; the churches a faithful supporter; his 
neighbors a kind and courteous friend, whose warm heart 
and cordial hand always gave them sincere welcome; his 
district and State an able and industrious Representative, 
who was true to every trust. 

He has gone from the cares and trials of this life to the 
crowning glories of eternity, but his memory will live in 
the hearts of his friends and of the people he represented 
so faithfully and so well. 



14 Address of Mr. Charles W. Stone of Pennsylz'ania. 



Address of Mr, Charles W. Stone, 

Mr. Speaker: Three hundred and fifty-six men were 
elected to membership in this House. During the two 
years of its existence eleven of these have died, and of 
those eleven more than one-third were from the State of 
Pennsylvania. Four times has the grim messenger come 
to our delegation with his sad summons. Four times has 
this House paused in its proceedings and laid aside its ordi- 
nary business to pay becoming tributes of respect to the 
memory of Pennsylvania's dead. The sturdy and strong 
Mutchler, the genial and generous Lilly, the amiable and 
attentive O'Neill, the modest and manly Wright, all mei: 
of high character, of distinguished service, of earnest pur- 
pose, and of winning qualities, have gone on before, and 
the places that knew them here shall know them no more 
forever. Pennsylvania is stricken and mourns, but the 
country shares in her loss, and the Congress of all the 
States joins in her expressions of sorrow and her tributes 
of respect. These men were Representatives of single dis- 
tricts and from but one State, but they were lawmakers for 
the whole of a great nation. No district or State lines 
bounded their patriotism or limited their loyalty, and their 
examples and their memories are part of the treasure of a 
common countr\". 

Death is seldom welcome. We shrink from his cold 
touch. His summons seems never kind, his presence never 
timely. We recognize the messenger of Infinite Power and 
Infinite Love, and we bow to His decrees, but to us they 



Life and Services of Myron B. IVrigJit. 15 

are still inscrutable. Why the nation must lose an experi- 
enced and faithful legislator, his constituents a trusted and 
efficient Representative, his famil)- a beloved father and 
husband still in the flower of vigorous manhood, no one can 
understand. A mission is apparently unfinished; a work 
but partly done; a life quenched at the time of its greatest 
usefulness. Why is it? Only the voice of Omniscience 
can answer. 

Mr. Wright was my colleague and friend for four years, 
and yet I came to know him thoroughly and fully only 
during the later weeks and months of his service here. A 
common and special interest in certain features of the rev- 
enue legislation of last session brought us much together 
and gave me exceptional opportunities to learn the depth 
and breadth of his mind and heart. He was quiet and 
unpretentious, seldom mingling in debate, never obtruding 
himself upon the public gaze; but he had a broad grasp of 
public questions and an intelligent comprehension of pend- 
ing measures, and was always earnest and positive in his 
opinions and convictions and frank and outspoken in their 
expression. 

He loved his country, was patriotic in all his impulses; 
but the interests of his constituents were his first care, and 
for them he labored with an earnestness and zeal that knew 
no weariness or flagging. He enjoyed, as he deserved to 
enjoy, their fullest confidence. From the historic district 
of Wilmot and Grow he was sent for three successive terms, 
and shortly before he died he had been renominated with- 
out opposition and reelected by a greatly increased majority 
for a fourth term 

He was conscientious in the performance of duty, true 
to his word, true to his friends, true to himself. He was 



i6 Address of Mr. Charles W. Stone of Pemisylvania. 

frank by nature, sincere and earnest in word and act. As 
a citizen he was enterprising and public-spirited, living 
close to the people among- whom he was born and always 
had his home, mingling with them in their everyday life, 
sympathizing with their feelings, and sharing in their as- 
pirations. As a business man he was straightforward in 
his methods, honorable and upright in his dealings, ener- 
getic and successful in his enterprises. In his family he 
was affectionate, kind, and true, the light of their life, the 
guide of their actions. 

]\Ir. Speaker, I shall attempt no statement of the events 
of Mr. Wright's life, no detailed analysis of his character 
or achievements. That is the privilege of those who had 
known him longer if not better than I did; but I could not 
refrain on this occasion from adding my tribute of affection- 
ate admiration of his many manly qualities, of appreciative 
respect for his character, his life, and his work; of sincere 
sympathy for his widowed wife, doubly bereaved in the loss 
of husband and son; for the orphaned boy, who loses by 
the same cruel blow a father's guidance and a brother's 
companionship. 

This House loses a valued member, the nation a faithful 
servant, his constituents a watchful, zealous, and true Rep- 
resentative, you and I a beloved friend; but we can hardly 
appreciate the darkness and sorrow and desolation which 
came into the life of wife and sou, of brother, father, and 
friends, when the light of that life went out in that foreign 
land. We can not lighten their burden, we can not lessen 
their sorrow; we can but teuder in proper terms the con- 
dolence of associates who loved him and who sympathize 
with theui. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 17 

Mr. Speaker, if I were to sum up in a single sentence my 
estimate of the life and work of Myron B. Wright and 
engrave upon his monument a fitting epitaph, I could not 
do so better than by using the words of another: 

He has done the work of a true man. 
H Mis 85 2 



Address of Mr. Smith of Arizona. 



Address of Mr, Smith of Arizona. 

Mr. Speaker: Death comes to all, despite every tear that 
love may shed and every prayer that breaking hearts may 
force toward Heaven. The world has grown old enough 
to view with some philosophy the death of the young and 
the old, but no human wisdom or faith, no hope or love, 
has ever yet fully reconciled us to the death of a friend in 
the very noontide of a successful and hopeful life; and we 
who were his friends stand to-day at the bier of Myron B. 
Wright overwhelmed by the sense of our loss. While the 
records of the proceedings of this body show much that he 
has done for his district, which he loved so well, and for his 
country, which he loved more, and tempt me to enter into a 
full history of his service here, I feel constrained to speak of 
him as a man and a friend, leaving a review of his public 
service to abler minds than mine. 

In my eight years' service in this distinguished body I 
have known with more or less intimacy almost every man 
serving in this House, and among them I have never found 
a truer or a kinder soul than that which animated our de- 
parted friend. With a heart as wide as man's universe, a 
faith as broad as the promises of God, he felt constrained 
in his benefactions by no creed, but gave freely to every 
deserving cause and rejoiced in every good work and kindly 
deed of man. I have never known a man of broader char- 
ity than he; there was nothing narrow or proscriptive in 
his nature. In all my intercourse with him I never heard 
a criticism of any human being's conduct fall from his lips. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 19 

lyct this not be considered as want of strength in him. I 
know he felt as strongly as yon or I, and would not hesitate 
to rebuke wrong whenever and wherever he met it. 

I trust I may be pardoned here in alluding to an incident 
somewhat personal, and recounted only to throw a glint of 
light on the hospitableness of his character. In the Fifty- 
first Congress several friends of his concluded to go to the 
Thousand Islands, in the St. Lawrence River, on a fishino- 
excursion, and he was of course the central figure and heart 
of the company. He came to me and in his inexpressibly 
cordial and sweet way asked me to join the party, to which 
I readily consented, being myself fond of the sport and well 
acquainted with the members of the party. Transportation 
was provided by Mr. Wright; boats, boatmen, and equip- 
ments were likewise provided by him, each of us thinking 
that he was keeping account for settlement when our tour 
was ended. We never saw any item of that account. He 
laughingly said he had lost it, and no importunity could 
force him to take a cent from any one of us. He loved that 
beautiful river, and loved to have his friends enjoy the sweet 
delights of its placid bosom. He was a rare good fisherman. 
I remember few days of more pleasure than his bright eyes 
gave me, while I sat opposite him in his boat, observing 
him as he watched his trolling spoon for a rise of the mighty 
muskellunge. 

Mr. Wright was a lover of God and nature. The deep 
forest gave him inspiration; the roar of ocean was music to 
him; the unruffled water of the clear river was his delight. 
Every blossoming flower, singing bird, and leafing tree 
touched a sweet chord in his loving nature. 

With all this tenderness was mixed a strength of pur- 
pose, a determination of will, which raised the young school 



20 Address of M7\ Smith of Arisojia. 

teacher from poverty to affluence, from obscurity to a prom- 
inent place on the floor of this House. Rarely have I seen 
such a combination of strength and lovableness united in 
one individual. 

He never made a brow look dark, 
Nor caused a tear but when he died. 

The shock of his death came not alone to his devoted 
wife, for he had scarcely passed the river when his son, in 
whom he took great and just pride, followed him into the 
great beyond, the double affliction leaving a void in a happy 
home that even time's effacing hand can never hide. 

As has been well said lately on this floor, "He is not 
gone," Mr. Speaker. "All the developments and achieve- 
ments of the future, like the coral isles in the Pacific, be- 
come beautiful because they are based upon the innumer- 
able mausoleums which we help to make — that foundation 
on which the glory, the prosperity, and the immortality of 
all that is good will rest forever. ' ' 



Life and Services of Myron B. JVn'g/if. 21 



Address of Mr. Wanger, 

Mr. Speaker: The melanchoh' satisfaction of paying 
tribute to the virtues of one who was in his life, as citizen 
and as Representative, an example meriting emulation, 
' unites in this instance with the warmth of a high personal 
regard. Memory fondh' lingers over those who held our 
friendship by the noble attributes of gentle courtesy, stead- 
fast fidelity, and unfailing helpfulness, which were so richly 
manifested by our late colleague, Myron B. Wright. 

Unacquainted until a very few years since, a single meet- 
ing with him established a feeling of companionship as if 
of long standing, and subsequent association increased its 
fervor and added to it the respect due his keen insight, 
sound judgment, and ripe experience, while his cordial 
welcome to me as a member of this body and his gener- 
ous proffer of assistance in acquiring familiarity with its 
methods of procedure and those of the Executive Depart- 
ments of the Government won my lasting gratitude. 

That he was of a genial nature and the soul of honor all 
who met him felt; of his patriotic fidelity to public duty his 
associates in this body, especially those of the committees 
on which he served, well knew; and of his zealous devotion 
to the welfare of his constituents the latter had convincing 
proof in attention given to their wants and the achieve- 
ment of gratifying results. If his remote predecessor, the 
distinguished author of the Wilmot proviso, will be re- 
membered for devotion to a national cause, his memory 
will be enshrined in the orratitude of his constituents for 



22 Address of Mr. Waitger of Pennsylvania. 

the added reason of unusual efforts for the success of their 
humbler personal interests. 

On the comparatively few occasions when he spoke in 
this Chamber it was, after careful preparation and with a 
thorough knowledge of the subjects treated, in a logical 
manner and with rich illustrations and cogent reasoning, 
giving to his addresses a permanent value, and leaving 
them a storehouse of information to the student of polit- 
ical economy and general public aflfairs. 

His success in the business and political world illustrates 
the possibilities for the American youth who combines with 
honesty and industry intelligence, enterprise, and cour- 
age. From a humble clerkship he rose to the position of 
cashier of the leading bank of his town, and was the orig- 
inator and directing spirit of a number of important manu- 
facturing and commercial enterprises; and in a district 
where the principle of rotation among counties in the selec- 
tion of a Representative in this body had long prevailed, 
he was thrice reelected without controversy respecting the 
nomination. 

Removed from among us by that grim reaper who har- 
vests from every age and condition, our sorrow at the loss 
is softened by the fact stated in the language of the ritual 
of a fraternal order of which our lamented colleague was a 
member : 

The memory of his virtues lingers in our remembrance, and reflects its shining 
luster lieyond the portals of the tomb. The earthen vase which had contained 
precious odors will lose none of its fragrance though the clay be brol<en and 
shattered. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 23 



Address of Mr. Covert. 

Mr. Speaker: On leaving my room this morning to come 
to this Chamber my eyes turned, as they had turned very 
often before, to a picture hanging on the wall. In the 
foreground were depicted the thoughtful, kindly, animated 
faces of Senator Proctor of Vermont, Senator Gibson of 
Maryland, and Senator Call of Florida. In a modest place 
in a group in the background of the picture was a faithful 
delineation of the compact figure and the open, manly face 
of Myron B. Wright, of Pennsylvania. 

It was the representation of a joint committee of the 
Senate and House instructed by Congress in 1892 to visit 
Cuba to examine into the matter of immigration in its 
possible relation to threatened infectious diseases. It was 
my great good fortune to be one of that joint commission, 
and I but voice the thought of every member of it when I 
say that the genial personality and the frank and hearty 
comradeship of Mr. Wright formed most potential fac- 
tors in making the entire journey most pleasurable. A 
previously existing friendship, already warm and cordial 
in character, was strengthened and cemented by the close 
companionship born of this journey. 

We can all of us readily comprehend that in the Fifteenth 
Pennsylvania district, as in every other district represented 
on this floor, there are very many able and influential men 
properly ambitious of political distinction. It was cred- 
itable alike to Mr. Wright and the constituency that sent 
him here that this modest, unassuming gentleman, from 



24 Address of Mr. Covert of Neiv York. 

whom all self-seeking was as far removed as the earth from 
the sky, should have been elected, and thereafter, as we have 
been reminded to-day, thrice reelected to hold the commis- 
sion of his home people in this Chamber. 

He was always an accessible, patient, laborious, conscien- 
tious Representative, and the large and important interests 
of his district were during his entire service here absolutely 
safe in his keeping. 

He had no overweening ambition in the direction of ex- 
alted statesmanship. His political faith was firmly founded, 
and he was quite content to accept the traditions and the 
teachings of his party without attempting to devise new 
policies or novel methods of governmental action. While 
he stood broadly upon the platform of Republicanism, his 
manly, genial nature made for him strong and devoted 
friends on the Democratic side of this Chamber. We of 
the opposition join with saddened hearts to-day in the ex- 
pression of sincerest sympathy with his broken home circle 
and of deepest sorrow at the severance of the ties which 
bound him to us. 

Mr. Wright had all those manly qualities and gentle 
virtues that from all time have commended their possessors 
to the warm and tender regard of their fellow-men. 

His faithfulness, his modesty, his kindness of heart— 
these were the attributes that brought his fellow-members 
to him and held them to him even as with bands of steel. 
Above all things else he was faithful, and this one qual- 
ity, faithfulness — involving devotion to dut>' and fidelity 
to friends — most surely forms the noblest attribute in the 
character of any man. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 25 

As Lowell grandly summarizes it in his Image Breaker: 

Wealth and rule slip down with fortune as her wheel turns round ; 
He who keeps his faith, he only can not be discrowned. 
Little were a change of station, loss of life or crown. 
But the wreck were past retrieving if the man fell down. 

Through all his life the man whose memory we are met 
to-day to honor kept his faith with himself and with all 
mankind. In the performance of any duty, even though 
the slightest, he never fell and never even faltered. 

Not with his eyes lowered downward to the earth, but 
with his gaze turned steadfastly to the skies, Mr. Wright 
passed onward to his death, leaving behind him the rec- 
ord of a public and a private life each alike unspotted and 
unstained. 



26 Address of Mr. Hicks of Pennsylvania. 



Address of Mr. Hicks. 

Mr. Speaker: To do proper honor to the memory and 
pay proper tribnte to the labors of an active, earnest, pains- 
taking, and conscientious member of this honorable and 
distinguished branch of the American Congress is a priv- 
ilege I would not seek and a duty I would not approach 
without hesitation and solicitude. The people of the great 
State of Pennsylvania stand with us to-day in doing honor 
to the memory, talents, energy, and industry of my late col- 
league, Hon. Myron B. Wright. ' ' What a man does for 
others, not what they do for him, gives him immortality," 
said that great and distinguished statesman, Daniel Webster. 
And it is well written by another that — 

He who loves his fellow-men the best, 

His name on Heaven's immortal scroll leads all the rest. 

In the light of these truisms and by this rule of the meas- 
uring of life's achievements the success of my late distin- 
guished colleague stands like a tower, and his memory to 
his people in the light of his unselfishness and his labor 
for others is like a sweet perfume; and his honesty, purity, 
and integrity stand in as bold prominence as do his native 
hills of northern Pennsylvania. 

It was during our brief months of vacation that the 
never-failing and vigilant seeker after men overtook him, 
and our remembrance of his devotion to duty recalls to 
mind as but of yesterday how faithfully he represented his 
district and State in all that pertained to its welfare and 
prosperity as he understood it, and how broad he made his 
platform of duty and of right; how deeply he cultivated 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 27 

and always maintained a high sense of honor and fidelity 
to his country. No personal interest or cause had weight 
with him when duty pointed in some other direction. His 
delightful companionship, his social and friendly disposi- 
tion and intercourse, so endeared him to his fellow-members 
and to all who knew him that his death was more felt and 
created more than an ordinary vacancy. In this busy Hall 
where all is life and energy it is rarely that the dropping 
out of a single member would be missed, yet in the death 
of our friend all who ever came in contact with him can- 
not but miss his friendly face, his stalwart form, and the 
cordial greeting that characterized his intercourse with all 
of his fellow-members. 

It is said that death seeks a shining mark, and this has 
been fully verified in the death of our friend, as none upon 
this side of the Chamber was more truly loved than he. 
Those of us who knew the affliction from which he suf- 
fered in the days immediately preceding the adjournment 
of our second session, and recollect the solicitude exhibited 
by him for the interest of his district and State, and how 
faithfully he labored in protecting them during the last 
days of the session, can not find words sufficient to express 
our admiration of his devotion to duty; and when remon- 
strated with on account of his health and failing strength 
he answered, "My people expect me to care for them when 
I am here." Afterwards, when upon the floor of the Sen- 
ate in the performance of this duty, he expressed the same 
thought to a fellow-member upon being most earnestly 
entreated to first consider himself. Self was not a part of 
our friend's life; devotion to duty and to successfully labor 
for others was his daily, yea, hourly, care. 



28 Address of Mr. Hicks of Pennsylvania. 

It was scarcely thought that we would so soon be called 
upon to mourn his departure upon that journey from which 
none ever returns — that journey which so many dread, but 
which to our friend exhibited no terrors. He entered the 
dark valley without fear or doubt. Yet, Mr. Speaker, such 
is the uncertainty of human life — to-day alive, to-morrow 
forever silent. Surely our days are as the grass of the 
field, and our deeds alone are left to speak for us. How 
proudly we can point to the deeds of our friend, and in the 
light of them and of his many acts of kindness we realize 
that we have lost one of our noblest and choicest spirits 
and the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a distin- 
guished statesman of broad mind, honest action, and pure 
and noble purposes, and his people, whom he loved with 
such fervor and served with zeal and fidelity, have lost a 
most faithful and devoted friend and Representative. 

Said one of his neighbors, in writing of him : 

Myron B.Wright was in the prime of manhood, forty-seven years of age; 
and while he has left a record and pleasant memories unattainable by many men 
of equal advantages whose years might double his, the thought is uppermost at 
this time, what a loss is a man of such promise. To him the accumulation of 
money was valued only as a means of doing good ; he was generosity and honor 
personified, and many a recipient of his open-heartedness will cherish his memory 
in sorrow. Although without the advantages of a liberal education and with no 
pretense to public speaking, his career in Congress as a thinker, a student, and 
writer developed an aptitude for his surroundings and produced several excellent 
speeches and open letters expressing opinions upon public affairs which attracted 
much favorable attention. 

Says another of his career: 

Myron B. Wricht's career as a legislaior, like that which marked his private 
business life, was brilliant and successful and characterized by inherent fidelity. 

His growing popularity among his constituents in the Fifteenth district, by 
whom he was reelected to Congress for a fourth term a few days previous to his 
death, is best shown by the increased majority given him over that received by 
him in the contest of 1892. In 1892 he received 4,555 plurality in the district; 
in 1894, 8,150 — a gain of 3,616. This certainly may be considered a flattering 
compliment as well as a verdict of popular approval of liis record as a (."ongrcss- 
man by the intelligent voters composing tlie district. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 29 

And said his pastor, in his eloquent and impressive ser- 
mon eulogistic of our friend, commenting upon his personal 
traits: 

Myron B. Wright was the pride of his Congressional district. On November 
6 he was elected for the fourth time to represent the old Wilmot district, and 
in honoring him the district honored itself, for a man more faithful to what he 
believed to be his duty to his constituents was not to be found. And how much 
his laborious efforts for others may have contributed to his early death I am not 
prepared to say; but this much I do know, that night after night, week after 
week, and month after month this faithful servant of the people toiled for others, 
that no poor soldier appealed to him in vain. The defenders of his country's flag 
and honor were his special care. 

One of the strongest characteristics of Mr. Wright was his friendship. When 
he did you a favor it was with so much grace that it almost seemed that you had 
conferred a favor upon him in permitting him to do it. * * * 

Standmg here to-day, I can sorrowfully voice the cry that comes up from all 
these interested hearts. Why is it? No human being has the power to answer, but 
He who is infinite in love, mercy, and compassion, who alone can tell, hides the 
answer in the depths of His own infinite purposes, and we bow before His will 
and say, "He doeth all things well! " 

Our friend was a typical American, devoted to his coun- 
try and its institutions ; he loved them as he loved his life. 
He was like many other distinguished men of this great 
nation ; he rose from the ranks of the people, and was hon- 
ored by the people as one of those who developed traits, of 
leadership, and when thus honored he was found in every 
respect worthy, and prided himself on keeping in touch with 
the people from whom he came. They knew his generous 
heart and noble instincts, and he never failed to respond to 
a worthy cause or a prope,r call. Thus was his public life. 

Of his home life, all those who entered its sacred and 
lovely precincts found happiness, contentment, and genu- 
ine hospitality. Enjoying a fair share of the wealth of 
this world as the result of his own labors, he was without 
ostentation. We dare not venture further comment here, 
nor bring to mind to wounded hearts the poignant grief of 



30 Address of Mr. Hicks of Pennsylvania. 

a beloved wife and mother, not only for the cherished hus- 
band, but also a promising son, who in his devotion to his 
father became a victim to the same dread disease, and they 
were both entombed on the same day side by side. 
It is pleasant to know, Mr. Speaker — 

That not * * * with life's precarious fire 
The immortal ties of nature shall expire. 
These shall resist the triumph of decay. 
When time is o'er and worlds have passed away. 
Cold in the dust the perished heart may lie, 
But that which warmed it once shall never die; 
That spark, unburied in its mortal frame, 
With living light eternal, and the same 
Shall beam on joy's interminable years, 
Unveiled by darkness — unassuaged by tears. 

Our friend died away from home in search of health, 
attended by his wife and their two sons. It was, however, 
his privilege and pleasure to receive a few days before his 
death the pleasing and gratifying news of having been for 
the fourth time chosen by the people as their Representa- 
tive in this House. 

The large concourse of friends and distinguished citizens 
from all parts of his great State present at the last sad rites 
of his funeral attest the affection and esteem in which he 
was held by those who knew him best. In the presence of 
his neighbors and a vast concourse of sympathizing friends 
he was buried on one of the hills overlooking the beauti- 
ful waters of the Susquehanna that he so much loved and 
admired in his lifetime. 

We can well say of him: 

He had run his bright career, 
And served men nobly, and acceptance found, 

And borne to light and right his witness high. 

What can such better crave then than to die 
And wait the issue sleeping under ground? 



Life and Sei'vices of Myron B. Wright. 31 

To our friend death had no terrors, and with the record 
of a useful and honored life behind him he went forth into 
immortality, the life that is to come, with a certainty of 
receiving a reward for his devotion to duty and a rest from 
his labors. 



32 Addi-ess of Mr. William A. Stone of Fennsylvama. 



ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAM A, STONE, 

Mr. Speaker: One of the first men whom I learned to 
know in Congress was Myron B. Wright. 

He was not an excitable man, nor was he given to much 
imagination. He always took as a foundation for his rea- 
sonings a fact instead of a theory. He was practical in all 
that he said and did. He did not aim to be witty, nor did 
he aspire to oratory, and yet the people who knew him 
would rely on his judgment and follow his leadership. He 
came here to represent his district faithfully, honestly, and 
sensibly, and he did it in each particular. The district had 
never been better represented or more closely looked after. 
He impressed you at once as a practical, candid, truth- 
ful man. People would not lie to him, for they saw at 
once that if they did he would not believe them. He was 
shrewd, cautious, and conservative, but once get his con- 
fidence and he was as confiding and trustful as a child; but 
he never was deceived, and never trusted anyone who did 
not deserve it. 

He knew human nature, and knew what men would 
do under given circumstances. He knew what his people 
expected him to do, and his course in Congress was very 
satisfactory to those who sent him here. He was a much 
safer and better Representative than many more brilliant 
men. He rightly understood that he was not sent here 
so much to make speeches as to \-ote the will ot his con- 
stituents. He was invaluable on committees, where the 



Life and Services of Myron B. WrigJit. 33 

Congressman principally does his work. He had no diffi- 
culty in finding which was the right side of any question, 
and his vote was always on that side. 

He was a stalwart in all his public acts, and never dodged 
or hesitated to assume their responsibilities. Being a prac- 
tical business man, he soon became a successful politician, 
not in the sense in which it is sometimes understood, but 
in the sense of a leader and guide among his party friends. 

He was genial, kind-hearted, and popular among his col- 
leagues. He had as many friends in the House as any man 
who has ever sat in it for the same length of time. 

Such a man was Myron B. Wright as I understood him. 
His death was a shock to me. I did not know that he was 
ill until I heard that he had passed awa}'. Cut off in the 
prime of life, his untimely death illustrates the frail tenure 
by which we hold. In the midst of action, busy with plans 
for the future and partly matured plans of the past, he was 
suddenly and unexpectedly summoned; no excuse, no plea, 
would palliate the stern messenger. 

It seems hard that a man like him, just in the height of 
his usefulness to his family and the people of his district, 
should be called; and yet death comes quite frequently in 
this way. 

We, his colleagues, on this day set apart in memory of 
him, can all faithfully say that in his death we have lost 
a worthy coworker, a valiant comrade, and a dearly loved 
friend. 

H Mis 85 3 



34 Address of Mr. Groiv of Pennsylvania. 



Address of Mr. Grow, 

INIr. Speaker: During this Congress, with short inter- 
vals, the funeral dirge has reminded us that — 

The battle of our life is brief, 

The alarm, the struggle, the relief; 

Then sleep we side by side. 

Myron B. Wright, our departed colleague, was elected 
four successive times, the last one just a week before his 
death, to represent the Congressional district in the State 
of Pennsylvania composed of the counties of Bradford, 
Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming, The two largest 
counties of his district, Bradford and Susquehanna, with 
Tioga County, for more than a third of a century preced- 
ing i860 had composed a Congressional district whose peo- 
ple in the stirring political events of that period acted no 
inconspicuous part in the history of the country. 

The year Mr. Wright was born David Wilmot, then rep- 
resenting that district, offered an amendment to a bill pend- 
ing in this House appropriating $2,000,000, to be placed at 
the disposal of the President for concluding a peace with 
the Republic of Mexico of the war then pending by reason 
of the annexation of Texas. The proviso was adopted in 
this House by the unanimous vote of the Representatives 
from the nonslaveholding States with three exceptions. 
But the bill thus amended was defeated in the Senate. Mr. 
Wilmot' s amendment provided — 

That as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of an\^ territory 
from the Republic of Mexico by the United States by virtue of any treaty wiiich 
may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys 
herein apjiropriated, neither slaveiy nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in 
any part of said territory except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly 
convicted. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 35 

This amendment has gone into history as the Wilmot 
proviso. The Congressional action on this question was 
the beginning of the third epoch of what is recognized as 
the specific periods of slavery agitation in our country. 
The first was the adoption of Jefferson's proviso in the ordi- 
nance of 1787, which prohibited slavery in all the territory 
lying northwest of the Ohio River. The second was the 
passage of the act of March 6, 1820, which prohibited slav- 
ery in all the territory of the Louisiana purchase north of 
the parallel of 36° 30" north latitude, except what was in 
the State of Missouri. This act is known as the Missouri 
compromise. The third period was the adoption of this 
proviso near the close of the first session of the Twenty- 
ninth Congress, in 1846, and which culminated eight years 
later, on the 26th day of May, 1854, in the passage of the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, which repealed the restriction 
on the extension of slavery in the act of March 6, 1820. 
This was the opening prelude to the mightiest conflict of 
arms in the history of the race. It caused the dismember- 
ment and dissolution of old political parties and the forma- 
tion of new ones. Within three months after the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise the first action anywhere of 
organized political parties was taken in this old Wilmot 
district for combining the political elements which a little 
later coalesced throughout the nonslaveholding States into 
the Republican party, whose banner, inscribed with "Free 
soil, free speech, and free men," was borne to victory six 
years later by its great standard bearer, the unlettered child 
of the prairies, Abraham Lincoln. 

Preceding the coalescence of the political elements in this 
Congressional district mass meetings, it is true, were held 



36 Address of Mr. Groiv of Pennsylvania. 

in other portions of the country recommending the forma- 
tion of a new political party and suggesting fitting names 
for the new organization. But the political elements — 
Whig, Democratic, Free Soil, and Abolitionist proper — in 
this old district were the first anywhere to combine in the 
same political part}-. 

At the election in October, 1854, the Representative in 
Congress from this district, who had opposed the repeal of 
the Missouri compromise, was reelected by the unanimous 
vote of the district. Franklin Pierce, for President, had 
received in 1852 2,500 majority, and Lincoln in i860 re- 
ceived over 11,000. 

In the midst of such a people Mr. Wright was born, 
and surrounded by such political influences he grew to 
manhood. Like his boy associates of the neighborhood, 
his youth was passed in labors on the farm in summer and 
in attending the district school in winter. The last year of 
his school education was spent at the academy in Montrose, 
the county seat of his native county. Afterwards for a 
short time he taught school in the neighboring townships 
until he found employment as a clerk at low wages (about 
$3 per week) in a bank at Susquehanna, of which subse- 
quently he was elected cashier, which position he held until 
the time of his death. 

Mr. Wright's career illustrates in a marked degree the 
beneficent influences of the free institutions under which we 
live, where man is born to no rank or condition in life, and 
where all the highways to honorable distinction lead as 
well from the district schoolhouse and the lowly cot of hon- 
est toil as from the gilded palaces of wealth or the halls of 
academic culture. 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 37 

Without any of the fortuitous advantages of family wealth 
or family influence, Mr. Wright, by his own inherent force 
of character, wrought his way to business success and to 
political positions of honor. By his fidelity to every trust 
and his laborious faithfulness in the discharge of the duties 
incident to his position he won the respect and esteem of 
the people among whom he lived and achieved that highly 
commendable, as well as most desirable, success in life 
which comes to all who do well their part. 

You may be tiller of the soil, or toiler by the day ; 

Remember, then, he does the best, the best in every way. 

Who has a single aim in view, determined from the start, 

In whate'er he shall pursue, to truly do his part. 

Though doctor, lawyer, teacher, priest, learn this command by heart: 

They never fail, but all succeed, who simply do their part. 



Proceedings in the Senate. 

December 4, 1894. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. 
T. O. Towles, its Chief Clerk, announced to the Senate the 
death of Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from 
the State of Pennsylvania, and communicated to the Senate 
the resolutions of the House thereon. 

Mr. Quay. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate the 
resolutions which have just been received from the House 
of Representatives. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before the Senate 
the resolutions of the House of Representatives, which will 
be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Ix THE House of Representatives, 

Decertiber J, j8g4. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with sincere regret the announcement of 
the death of Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the State of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate the foregoing resolution to the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Quay. INIr. President, on another occasion it will be 
my duty to invite the attention of the Senate to the con- 
sideration of the resolutions which have just been read. 
For the present I offer the resolutions which I send to the 
desk, and ask their immediate consideration and adoption. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions submitted by the 

Senator from Pennsylvania will be read. 

39 



40 Proceedings in the Senate. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the announcement of 
the death of the Hon. Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the State 
of Pennsylvania. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
the Senate do now adjourn. 

The Vice-President. The question is on agreeing to 
the resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and the 
Senate adjourned until Wednesday, December 5, 1894, at 
12 o'clock m. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

March i, 1895. 

Mr. Cameron, Mr. President, I ask that the resolutions 
from the House of Representatives on the death of my late 
colleague, Hon. Myron B. Wright, be laid before the 
Senate. 

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the resolu- 
tions of the House of Representatives, and they were read, 
as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

Febrxiary g, i8qJ. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death of the 
Hon. Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the State of Pennsylvania. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the busi- 
ness of the House be nov? suspended, that his associates may be able to pay proper 
tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect the House shall at the close of 
these ceremonies stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Mr. Cameron. Mr. President, I submit the resolutions 
which I send to the desk, and ask for their adoption. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions submitted by 
the Senator from Pennsylvania will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow the announcement 
of the death of Hon. Myron B. Wright, late a Representative from the Fifteenth 
district of the State of Pennsylvania. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended in order that 
fitting tribute be paid to his memory. 

41 



42 Address of Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvania. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CAMERON. 

Mr. President: Eleven times since the assembling of 
the Fifty-third Congress has death entered the other House 
of the National Legislature and four times this Senate, 
Four honored sons of my State— Representatives Mutchler, 
Lilly, O'Neill, and Wright — have been among those sum- 
moned to render final account. 

It is with feelings of sadness that I am called upon to ask 
the Senate to again suspend its business in these closing 
davs of its session to pay fitting tribute to the memory of 
my late colleague, Hon. IMyron B. Wright, of Susque- 
hanna, Pa,, late Representative from the Fifteenth Con- 
gressional district of Pennsylvania, who died at Trenton, 
Ontario, Tuesday, November 13, 1894, at 9.45 in the morn- 
ing, in the forty-eighth year of his age. For some time 
previous to his death he had been troubled with throat dis- 
ease, and after the adjournment of the last session of Con- 
gress, accompanied by his family, he went to Canada, where 
he had a cottage among the Thousand Islands of the St, 
Lawrence, to seek that rest and quiet which he needed so 
much after undergoing the laborious work which that long 
session entailed upon him. He, however, contracted a 
severe cold, which greatly aggravated his throat trouble. 
This was followed by typhoid pneumonia, which culmi- 
nated in his death. While it had been known that he was 
very ill, it was reported that he was out of danger and 
steadilv convalescing, and the sudden and sad announce- 
ment of his death was a great shock to his nian\- friends 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 43 

and admirers, not only in his district but throughout the 
whole State, and it cast a gloom over the entire community 

in which he had lived. 

Mr. Wright was born on the 12th day of June, 1847, at 
Forest Lake, Susquehanna County, Pa. He received his 
education at the public schools of his county and at IMont- 
rose Academy. He taught school in the town of Jessup in 
the winter of 1865-66. In the spring of 1866 he moved to 
Susquehanna, where he obtained a clerkship in the First 
National Bank, of which his uncle, Mr. George A. Guern- 
sey, was founder and cashier. He was elected assistant 
cashier of this bank in 1867, and in 1869, upon the retire- 
ment of his uncle, he was elected cashier, which position 
he held until his death. 

I^Ir. Wright was successful in all his undertakings, and 
by his untiring energy and financial business tact he suc- 
ceeded in putting the bank on a solid foundation, making 
it one of the stanchest financial institutions in northern 
Pennsylvania. He was also largely interested in the manu- 
facture of wood alcohol and acids, and was prominently 
identified with many other enterprises in his county, from 
which he amassed a comfortable fortune. 

Before ]\Ir. Wright was elected to Congress he had never 
held public office except that of school director. 

The Fifteenth Congressional district of Pennsylvania, 
commonly known as the old Wilmot district, and lately 
represented by Mr. Wright, is composed of the four coun- 
ties of Bradford, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming, 
containing a population of 174,375- 

In 1886, being the nominee of the Republican party of 
his district to represent them in the Fifty-first Congress, he 



44 Address of Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvajiia. 

was elected by a handsome majority, running many hundred 
votes ahead of his ticket. He was successively elected by 
large majorities to the Fifty -second Congress, the Fifty-third 
Congress, and to the next, the Fifty-fourth Congress. His 
last election, to the Fifty-fourth Congress, a few days before 
his death, and while away from home, attests his popularity 
among his constituents and the esteem in which he was 
held. The increased majority which he received in his last 
election over that of 1892 was a deserving compliment^ 
and it indorsed emphatically his splendid record in the Na- 
tional House of Representatives. For instance, in 1892 
he received 4,586 plurality, and in 1894 8,171, a gain of 
3,585 votes in two years. 

In the Fifty-first Congress, which was Republican, Mr. 
Wright served on the important Committees on Banking 
and Currency and Public Lands; in the Fifty-second Con- 
gress, which was Democratic, he served on the Committees 
on Ventilation and Acoustics and Immigration and Nat- 
uralization, and in the Fifty-third Congress, which was 
also Democratic, on the Committees on Public Buildings 
and Grounds and Militia. 

Mr. Wright possessed many noble traits of character — 
open-hearted, courteous, and generous to a fault, and kindly, 
cordial, and extremely obliging to everyone. All requests 
from his constituents, no matter how trivial or insignif- 
icant, received prompt and cheerful attention. Said one 
who knew him well: " One of the strongest characteristics 
of Myron B. Wright was his friendship. When he did 
you a favor it was with so much grace that it almost seemed 
that you had conferred a favor upon him in permitting him 
to do it. ' ' 



Life and Services of Myron B. Jl right. 45 

He was indefatigable and energetic as a true representa- 
tive of the interests of not only his immediate constituents 
but of those of the whole State, and unselfishly displayed 
more zeal in their behalf than he did for his own private 
interests. Especially were the old veterans of his district 
devotedly attached to him by reason of his unfailing, per- 
severing, and untiring services in their behalf. It was his 
proud title to be known as the "soldier's friend." 

He was a hard-working and persistent man. I remem- 
ber, personally, instances where he had, at different times, 
on his motion passed through the House of Representatives 
bills for the relief of certain soldier constituents. They 
were hardly engrossed in the other body when he came to 
my seat in the Senate and requested me to use my very best 
efforts to have prompt and speedy action taken upon them 
in this body, and although some months intervened before 
they were reported from the committee to which they had 
been referred, seldom did he allow a day to pass in the in- 
terval without either seeing me personally or writing me a 
letter urging action on those bills. 

Mr. Wright was in the prime of manhood when he was 
called hence. When I had the pleasure of seeing him at 
the adjournment of the last session of Congress he seemed 
to be in robust health, and had, as far as human eye could 
judge, many long and useful years before him. The old 
proverb that "misfortunes never come singly" proved to 
be too true in this particular instance. The family of Mr. 
Wright, it is sad to relate, were doubly afflicted at the 
time of his death. While Mr. Wright was lying upon his 
sick bed in Canada with typhoid fever, with hardly a hope 
of recovery, his eldest son, Albert H. Wright, a bright and 



46 Address of Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvania. 

promising young man of eighteen years, was also stricken 
with the same disease and survived his father only one day. 
Such a sad scene had never before been witnessed in Sus- 
quehanna County as when both father and son were buried 
together side by side. 

Mr. President, I can not conclude these remarks more 
fittingly than by quoting the following well-deserved eulo- 
gium upon my late colleague, which appeared in the edi- 
torial columns of the Hallstead Herald, of Susquehanna 
County, Pa., written by a personal friend of Mr. Wright, 
who had a high regard for him, and which I am sure echoes 
the sentiments of the heart of every man, woman, and child 
in the old Wilmot district: 

He is no more; his chair is vacant; his brain is still; his voice is hushed. 
How strange and weird those words applied to him ! As the sun sank behind the 
hills he loved so well the warm rays lighted the pitiful scene of final parting. The 
mysterious grave is about to close; the mantle drawn forever. The human soul 
cries out: "O Death, where is thy pity?" Death, thy lessons seem stern and 
cruel. Vain hope; reason will not explain; the veil can not be drawn. The end 
has come, and bowed in sorrow we cast a simple flower, a tear, upon his casket 
ere it is hidden from our sight forever. We kneel beside his grave and thereon 
gently place the chaplet; across the headstone a garland lay. Never did we feel 
like feebleness in attempting to give full justice to a life and character. If but for 
a moment to possess a soul of superior thought, that we might choose sublimest 
words in language, might command fulsome praise of the eloquent ; in another's 
thought, that we might dip our pen in smishine and write in words of living light 
that all the world could read. The task is beyond us. 

As well might we attempt to chisel the rarest grace in form or paint the gem in 
the picture world; and yet how little avails all plaudits and words of praise when 
he in truth is gone. His death is deplored as a personal bereavement, a state 
of national affliction. In the grand panorama of existence, on the great stage of 
life, none acted better his part or left greater impress of life wherever known. 

Hero worship is thought by sbme to be a glaring fault. To see the grand intel- 
lect grasping at questions of state and social problems, at a glance to solve the 
mystery of complicated financial knots, and thus while stupidity stands mute and 
stalks the earth — who would not be a hero worshiper? Ignorance alone will fail 
to worship such God-given gifts in the mind of man. 

Myron B. Wricht possessed those elements which made him tower above his 
fellow-men. His life, from the cradle to the grave, is marked by genius. From 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 47 

a poor boy, in a few years he rose to be a millionaire, while tens of thousands in 
the same county sat like monuments of pity and mourned their bitter lot. Yea, a 
prince among men has been cut off in the morning of his life. All the bright 
jewels that make man great in the eyes of his fellow-men flashed in the crown of 
his character. To meet him was to be his friend. To know him well was to love 
him much. Generosity, frankness, and friendship were the predominating graces 
of his character. His acts of kindness and charity will be the theme of old and 
young for years to come. His generous heart and elegant entertainment is the 
gossip of our national capital. No man can stand up to-day and say in truth that 
Myron Wright deceived him. To his frankness and candor all can testify. He 
despised deception and fawning, but admired manly expressions of conviction, 
were they for or against him. 

His strong friendship was proverbial, as fixed as the sun, as certain as day and 
night. He clung to his friends and they were drawn to him in an unusual degree. 
Before us lies the last letter we received from him but a short time before his 
death. The final sentence speaks his heart: "Believe me, I depend upon your 
friendship and that of every other friend I have more and more as the years pass 
by, and friendship to my mind means something more than the word ; it means 
loyalty, kindness, constancy, and liberal good feeling, and a thousand other virtues 
combined to make it perfect." The practice of his life lies in that thought. The 
soul of honor; a man whom the people loved to honor. To the stricken wife 
and son we would that we could bear some pearl of thought, some tender word of 
solace to ease their anguish for a moment. But no ! words count for naught in times 
like these; there is but One who can give comfort. To the brother, whom the 
deceased loved so well that many times we have seen tears start to his eyes while 
he spoke in praise of his virtues as he saw them— to him our hearts go out, for 
now he bears it all. This county never witnessed such a scene- father and son 
side by side, shining marks for death almost the same day. Strange are God's 
plans to us ! A hundred times in life we have seen that father and son arm in 
arm, companions in thought, in study, in business, and on the field of sport. 

We stood in the crowded church and heard the good divine preach. We saw 
many beautiful flowers and heard heavenly song, and strong men standing bowed 
m tears, and then there came a burst of sunshine through the stained windows 
that cast fitful and weird shadows across the church. And in front of the altar 
were father and son, companions still, even to the end. 



48 Address of Mr. Daniel of I 'irginia. 



Address of Mr. Daniel. 

Air. President: The Fifty-third Congress is now draw- 
ino- to an end. In a few more davs its record will have 
been made np and it will have passed away as a tale that is 
told. Amidst its closing hours the Senate has paused from 
the press of its labors to take official notice of the death of 
Myron B. Wright, a Representative of the State of Penn- 
sylvania, who died at Trenton, in Canada, on the 13th day 
of November, 1894, in the forty-eighth >ear of his age. 

The event which commands silence in this Hall and 
bows every head is not a rare one in its nature. It has 
been all too frequent during the Congress which is about to 
end, and all too frequent in its visits to the good people of 
our sister State of Pennsylvania. Eleven of the Repre- 
sentatives and four of the Senators who assembled here 
when this Congress began have passed beyond this theater 
of contention and beyond the voices of praise or blame. 

The Representative to whom we pay this last parting 
tribute of our respect was in the prime of his life and of 
his usefulness; and if we may judge by the voice of his 
own people and by the voice of those colleagues and asso- 
ciates who were his most intimate colaborers, he earned the 
tribute of having been a faithful Representative of the peo- 
ple whose agent he was. 

We read and we hear of men who pass long lives in the 
accumulation of riches, and who spend their last years in 
building some splendid mausoleum (^)i marble in order to 
preserve their dust from the dissolution of time. I envy 



Life and Services of Myron B. II 'rigJit. 49 

them not. Better the humble- grave and better the simple 
epitaph which this honest gentleman has won from the tes- 
timony of those around him: "Here lies one who accepted 
a public trust and was faithful to it." 

Mr. President, the people of this country know the polit- 
ical opinions of their public servants. They take up the 
Congressional Record in order to ascertain something of 
the nature and extent of the public services of their agents. 
But while that Record may be a true indicator of what the 
Congress has done, it is in very imperfect measure a mirror 
of what its members did toward the accomplishment of 
that result which affects the whole people. Some imagine 
that those who have filled those pages with the longest and 
most frequent speeches have been the most important fac- 
tors in obtaining the results that followed them. 

There could not be a greater mistake. Washington and 
Jefferson were members of deliberative bodies. Yet if we 
were to judge by speaking they would long since have been 
forgotten by mankind. The Record of Congress, like the 
dial of the watch, may indicate the time of day, but it dis- 
closes nothing of the secret and delicate workings of the 
machinery which have enabled the hands so to indicate. 

The dead Representative whom we mourn and to whom 
we pay tribute to-night was not of those who, if we were 
to look at the Record, were loudest or most conspicuous in' 
their demonstrations. He seemed to have conceived the 
idea when he came here that to work for the interests of his 
people was the highest duty and calling of a Representative, 
and he spent the days and years of his service in fulfilling 
that ideal. In the conferences of the committee room, in 
the long night sessions, in the deliberations and studies 
H Mis. 85 4 



50 Address of Mr. Daniel of \'irgi)iia. 

over public questions, in the refining of judgments, in the 
power of self-repression, in the training of one's self not to 
give way to selfish and sectional interests — in these things 
are summed up the character of that Representative whose 
death caused regret among his colleagues and to his country 
a loss which can be ill supplied. 

Mr. Wright was a business man. He dedicated his life 
to practical affairs. He was the cashier of a bank never 
suspected of any delinquency. He was a manufacturer who 
succeeded in his business. He had the honorable and high 
ambition — and I wMsh it were one more indulged in by those 
who are successful in business and in great affairs — to serve 
his countrymen in Congress. They appreciated the sturdy 
and excellent abilities which he displayed at home. They 
sent him here; they reelected him; they broke the record of 
their own district and section to reelect him a third and 
fourth time; and he died in their service with his harness on. 

Death, Mr. President, is an inconvenient guest. It has 
no herald to ride before it and announce its coming, and 
needs no footman or groom to wait upon its footsteps; it 
strides through the darkness in the majesty of its loneli- 
ness and of its own imperious power, and only announces 
its presence by its effect. Whether the hand lifted in labor 
falls or whether the idler, loafing upon the sunny side of life, 
is stricken, when it comes all must bow to it and respect it 
and wait upon it. So it has come, and has stricken down 
this strong man in the midst of his useful career. 

We may say of him that he had those virtues which make 
a people great. He was industrious; he had a purpose in 
life which he set out to accomplish and from which he was 



Life and Services of Myron B. IVright. 51 

never diverted. He was hospitable, and rejoiced in the pos- 
session of an ample home where he might entertain those 
who were his neighbors and friends. He was generous and 
kind, and appreciated the opportunity to show it. He is 
dead. It is difficult to fill the place of such a man ; and we 
we pay him the best tribute to one departed from our sight 
when we say we regret that he has gone, and that a faithful 
Representative of the people who trusted him is no more. 



52 Address of Mr. Pcffcr of Kansas. 



ADDRESS OF MR. PEFFER, 

Mr. President: Within fifty hours from this time the 
Fifty-third Congress will have passed into history. During 
the two years of its life no fewer than fifteen of its mem- 
bers have passed away. There went from this Chamber 
Mr. Stanford of California, ]Mr. Colquitt of Georgia, i\Ir. 
Vance of North Carolina, and Mr. Stockbridge of Michi- 
gan. From the House of Representatives, J. L. Chipman 
of Michigan; William Mutchler, Charles O'Neill, and Wil- 
liam Lilly, of Pennsylvania; G. W. Honk of Ohio, William 
H. Enochs of Ohio, R. F. Brattan of Maryland, IM. C. Lisle 
of Kentucky, G. B. Shaw of Wisconsin, Myron B. Wright 
of Pennsylvania, and Philip S. Post of Illinois all passed to 
the other side. 

These facts, INIr. President, remind us not only of the un- 
certainty of human life and the certainty of the death of 
men and of women, but that death comes alike to all classes. 
The most distinguished honors which could be conferred 
upon many citizens, according to their own estimation of 
honors, is to serve their country in the Hall of the House 
of Representatives; others prefer this body, which moves 
somewhat slower, perhaps at times with somewhat more 
dignity and decorum, and that is the measure of their am- 
bition. But we find that the greatest as well as the least 
among us are liable to this summons, and always when it is 
least expected. 

The lesson this teaches us, it seems to me, is the impor- 
tance of a clean life on the part of every public man, to live 



Life and Services of Myron B. Wright. 53 

before his fellow-men just as he would live before his own 
family, to discharge the trusts which the people impose 
upon him the same as he would discharge obligations due 
his wife, his mother, or his child. Here men move in a 
wider sphere than in their own homes; they are moving in 
the presence of the public, in the presence of a critical world, 
and upon them are centered the eyes of the people. 

What a grand achievement it is in a man's life to have 
fathers and mothers point to him as a model that their chil- 
dren may safely follow, the life of a public man so clean that 
a mother can point to him and say to her boy, "Look at 
that man, follow him; observe the cleanliness of his life, 
the uprightness of his purposes, the height of his aims, the 
breadth of his views, the ambition of his nature to be use- 
ful — he is the man whose example you may safeh- follow." 
The father takes his boy to a public meeting, where thou- 
sands are gathered together to do honor to a public man 
or to hear his utterances from the public platform. How 
encouraging it is when he can say to his boy, "Follow 
the record of that man, ' ' 

In the case of Mr. Wright, whose virtues we are com- 
memorating here this evening, I was among those who 
attended his funeral services. His home was upon the 
banks of the beautiful Susquehanna, in the midst of that 
grand and picturesque scenery of old Pennsylvania. It 
happened that his boy, his firstborn, and himself lay, not 
side by side, but one just beyond the other, in coffins in the 
same room at the same time. I found in the small town — 
small compared with Washington or with New York or 
with Chicago — where his family resided this man was be- 
loved by not only the elder persons in the community, the 



54 Addi^ess of Mr. Peffer of Kansas. 

fathers and the mothers and the brothers and the sisters, 
bnt by the boys and the girls, the children, the sweet ones, 
the jewels of the home, numbering perhaps in all 15,000 to 
20,000. 

This man, it was stated then, as is said here to-night, was 
a successful man in business. Mr. President, he was suc- 
cessful in a higher sense and in a better sense than in busi- 
ness, for, while it requires a high order of talent to rise and 
to continue rising in the world of affairs, yet there is a 
erander success even than that; it is to win and retain the 
respect of your fellow-men. Here was a multitude of peo- 
ple which had come to pay honor to this man's memory, 
and it was not because he was a successful man in business; 
that was not the reason of this multitude of worshipers- 
but it was because he had been kind to the poor, because 
he remembered the needy. He visited the widow and the 
fatherless children, and wherever this man's footprints were 
traced it was found that they led to the houses of the poor 
and the dwellings of the common people. 

It was from them the praises came; and, Mr. President, 
that is a broad field of usefulness. The highest ambition 
of mortal man is to be useful among his fellow-men. The 
heart that warms the hovels of the poor and cheers and 
comforts the common people is the heart that lives and 
grows during all the coming ages. 

That leads me to the afterthought not only of the im- 
mortality of good deeds, but of the immortality of a life 
that is capable of performing good deeds. What a cold, 
cheerless wilderness of life it would be, Mr. President, if 
there were no hope beyond this, if there were no gleamings 
of the future life coming to us as the years come and go. 



Life and Services of Myron B. IVi-ight. cc 

Tell me that such characters are to be cut off in the midst 
of their usefulness, and nothing that they have done shall 
live after them! If the soul that is capable of these great 
deeds is to be cut off from all further human associations 
and to pass into air, as the elements of the body pass into 
the earth, life would not be worth living. But it is the 
success that attends the steps of men and women as they 
move on toward the beautiful future which adds courage 
and stimulus to life; and though we slip at times, though we 
fail occasionally, yet the hope that is beyond is a constant 
inspiration and reward. 

More than that, Mr. President; those of our own families 
who have gone before us— what a cheerless and dreary wil- 
derness of life it would be when our little ones are taken 
away from us had we no hope beyond this life! 

Mr. President, it was not my good fortune to be person- 
ally acquainted with Mr. Wright. I speak of him as a 
Pennsylvanian ; I speak of him as a man, as a father, as a 
son, as a citizen, as a benefactor. I have heard nothin^y 
but good of him. Quoting from one of the newspapers in 
his neighborhood the da>- after his death : 

A more generous or noble-hearted man never lived 

Says his friend and companion, the editor of this paper— 

nor a more just, faithful, honorable one. Every trust confided to him was per- 
formed with conscientious fidelity. Those who knew him best loved him most. 
In his friendships he was true as steel, steadfast and unfailing in every emergency. 
He was never known to make a promise that he did not sacredly redeem, no pledge 
that he did not manfully fulfill. 

Another friend wrote of him : 

He was the soul of generosity, and no good cause ever appealed to him in vain 
for aid, and hundreds of the recipients of his big-heartedness will forever cherish 
his memory. Wealth and success in life never turned his head, and he was 
always the same approachable, genial, companionable gentleman, best liked where 
he was the best known, and respected and honored by all. 



56 Address 0/ Mi-. Pcffcr of Kansas. 

What a eulogy that is upon a uian's character! He had 
accumulated a vast fortune, and yet the children of the poor 
esteemed him; all classes of the communit}- honored him. 
May it be so with us all, Mr. President. 

The Presiding Officer. The question is on the adop- 
tion of the resolutions submitted by the Senator from Penn- 
sylvania [Mr. Cameron]. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 



k 



I 



